Richard Bronson, once a partner at the notorious Stratton Oakmont, is launching Commissary Club, an AI-powered platform aimed at helping formerly incarcerated individuals find housing and employment.
The weight of a prison sentence often persists long after the cell door swings shut. turning even the most qualified individuals into pariahs in the professional world. Richard Bronson learned this firsthand decades ago. and now. he is building a digital platform designed to break that cycle of isolation.
Commissary Club. an employment-focused social media site. launches with a specific mission: using artificial intelligence to help people navigate the complex bureaucracy of reentering society. For Bronson, the project is deeply personal. In the 1980s. he served as a partner at the infamous Stratton Oakmont. the brokerage firm led by Jordan Belfort that collapsed under the weight of massive corruption allegations in the mid-1990s. After leaving that firm to start his own successful business in South Florida, Bronson crossed the line into illegal activity.
“I built a $100 million business taking these small cap companies public,” Bronson said. “Some of the success. however. came through breaking the law—securities laws—and ultimately. as I knew inevitably would happen. I had to pay the price. I lost everything, and most significantly, my freedom. And I was sent to federal prison for a couple of years.”.
When he finally returned to the outside world, the reality of his criminal record hit him with brutal force. Despite his education and previous professional experience, he found himself effectively radioactive. That frustration remains the engine behind his new startup. As he looked at the lack of resources for those with less support than he had. he realized how precarious the lives of his fellow formerly incarcerated individuals were. “If it was this bad for me. what about the guys I was in prison with who had very little education and very little job experience?. What were their chances?”.
Bronson’s strategy relies on an AI-driven interface that assists users in hunting for work, securing housing, and accessing benefits. The platform also serves as a social network. allowing users to find community. build a referral network. and even find dates—an attempt to fill an existential gap that exists outside prison walls. It is a two-person operation: Bronson drives the mission. while co-founder Roman Kissin. whose resume includes stints at eBay and IBM and a tenure as CTO of LexisNexis from 2022 to 2025. handles the technical architecture.
While the platform is free to join. it operates on a for-profit model that may surprise those expecting a nonprofit approach. Users receive their first 10 job applications for free; beyond that. they must pay $149 for a bundle of 10 applications or $14.99 for an individual one. For a demographic often struggling with extreme financial hardship, the price point represents a significant barrier to entry.
Bronson remains unapologetic about the business structure. framing it as a necessary evolution for a market that has been largely ignored by the tech industry. He sees a distinct opportunity to leverage AI not to replace workers. but to extend a bridge to those the traditional economy has long cast aside. His commitment to this path is anchored in a long-standing personal reckoning. “I have devoted my life, when I came out of prison, to helping my brothers and sisters with records. Part of it is because I just felt so remorseful for the shit that I had done. I still wake up every day regretting choices I made,” Bronson said. “But we’re going after a huge, huge market that nobody—I mean nobody—does anything about.”.
Commissary Club is currently part of the Startup Battlefield 200, an initiative highlighting emerging companies ahead of a live competition in San Francisco next week.
Commissary Club Richard Bronson startup employment formerly incarcerated AI Stratton Oakmont prison reentry TechCrunch Battlefield 200